The Supernatural's Saga, Part Two: The Awakening
by Amy47101
Summary: If you had met me a few months ago, you probably would have described me as someone normal Now my life has changed forever and I'm a living science experiment. Not only can I see ghosts, but I can raise the dead without even trying. Now I'm running for my life with five of my supernatural friends and we have to find help before Team Galactic finds us. Sequel to The Summoning.
1. Chapter 1

**So yay! Part two! Hope you all enjoy!**

 **Amy47101 does not own pokémon or** ** _The Awakening._** **All rights go to their respective owners.**

o.0.o.0.o

 _The Awakening_

o.0.o.0.o

When the door to my cell clicked open, the first thought that flitted through my doped-up brain was that Zoey had changed her mind and come back. But ghosts don't open doors. They will, on occasion, ask me to open one, so I can raise and interrogate the zombies of supernaturals killed by a mad scientist, but they never need once opened one for themselves.

I sat up in bed and rubbed my bleary eyes, blinking away the lingering fog of the sedative. For a moment, the door stayed open only a crack. I slid from the bed, tiptoeing across the thick carpet of my fake hotel room, praying the person on the other side had been called away and I could escape before these people started whatever experiments they'd brought me here to—

"Hello, Dawn." Mrs. Talbot, who I now know was a nurse named 'Mars', beamed her best, kindly, I'm-a-harmless-nurse smile as she pushed the door wide. It was an act I'm sure she'd worked on until she got it just right.

The woman behind her had chic black hair and a Hearthome suit. I imagined her as the mother of the nastiest girl in class. Which was cheating, because that's exactly who she was. Mother of Ursula Urara, the one housemate we'd left out of our plans when we'd escaped from Lyle House, and for good cause, considering she was one of the reasons I'd needed to escape.

Ursula's mom carried a Macy's bag, like she'd just been out shopping and popped in to conduct a few horrific experiments before heading to lunch.

"I know you have a lot of questions, Dawn," Mars said as I sat on the edge of the bed. "We're here to answer them for you. We just need a little help from you first."

"Jimmy, Onyx, and Paul," Mrs. Urara said. "Where are they?"

I looked from her to Mars, who smiled and nodded encouragingly, like she fully expected me to turn in my friends.

"I thought you had Onyx." I said, my voice slow and confused.

"We did." Mrs. Urara said, voice clipped and annoyed. "We had him but he broke out of the van we were transporting him in." she sighed, waving her hand through the air. "Can't trust underlings, if you ask me. We should have handled this professionally."

I'd never been an angry kid. I'd never run away from home. Never stamped my feet and screamed that life was unfair and I wished I'd never been born. Whenever my mom told me we were moving again and I needed to transfer schools, I'd swallowed a whiny "but I just made new friends," nod, and tell him I understood.

Accept your lot. Count your blessings. Be a big girl.

Now, looking back at a life of doing what I was told, I realized I'd bought into the game. When adults patted me on the head and told me I was so grown-up, what they really meant was that they were glad I wasn't grown-up enough yet to question, to fight back.

Looking at Mars and Mrs. Urara, I thought of what they'd done to me—lying to me, locking me up—and I wanted to stamp my feet. Wanted to scream. But I wasn't going to give them that satisfaction.

I widened my eyes as I met Mrs. Urara's gaze, my voice the perfect amount of cheeky.

"You mean to tell me you let Onyx, the boy who would get distracted by a Beautifly, escape?"

I think she would have slapped me if Mars hadn't lifted her hand.

"Yes, Dawn, we lost Onyx. And no, Dawn," she caught my look as another cheeky question formed on my lips. "We haven't found the boys," she said. A pause. "We're very concerned for Onyx's safety."

"Because you think Paul might hurt him?" I shook my head. "Honestly? I thought you'd be more worried about Jimmy."

"We are just as concerned for Jimmy, and Paul wouldn't harm either of them. Not intentionally, of course. I know Paul's fond of Jimmy."

Fond? What a strange word to use. Paul and Jimmy were foster brothers, tighter than any blood brothers I knew. Sure, Paul was a shapeshifter, but that mightyena part of him was what would stop him from ever hurting Jimmy. He'd protect him at all costs—I'd already seen that.

As for Onyx, I wasn't sure. Onyx had an all around cheeky and goofy personality. He'd make Paul mad in a heartbeat. Though Paul would normally just leave things alone when it came to Onyx, I don't think he'd be to happy being stuck alone with him. Even so, Onyx seemed pretty experienced in the world, what with a mother who abandoned him and a father who neglected him. He'd be fine in the world alone.

My skepticism must have shown on my face, because Mars shook her head, as if disappointed in me.

"All right, Dawn. If you can't spare any concern for Onyx's safety, maybe you can for his health."

"W-what ab-bou—" My stutter cropped up most when I was nervous, and I couldn't let them know they'd struck a nerve when it came to the wellbeing of goofball, brother-to-all Onyx. So I tried again, slower now. "What about his health?"

"His condition."

Apparently I wasn't the only one who watched too many movies. Now they would tell me that Onyx had some rare medical condition and if he didn't get his medicine within twelve hours, he'd spontaneously combust.

"What condition?"

"He has diabetes," Mars said. "His blood sugar levels need to be monitored and regulated."

"With one of those blood testing things?" I said slowly with a furrowed brow, thinking back. Onyx had always disappeared into the bathroom before meals. I'd thought he just liked to wash up. I'd bumped into him once coming out as he'd been shoving a small black case into his pocket.

"That's right," Mars said. "With proper care, diabetes is easily managed. You weren't aware of it because you didn't need to be. Onyx leads a normal life."

"Except for one thing," Ursula's mom said.

"Yeah, the flareon ears and tail would totally throw him off track." I responded, not at all liking the woman. She shot me a pointed look, then reached into the Macy's bag and took out a backpack. It looked like Onyx's, but I wasn't falling for that—they'd probably bought a matching one. Sure, she pulled out a black T-shirt I recognized as Onyx's, but he'd left behind a whole closet of clothing at Lyle House. Easy enough to grab stuff from there.

Next came a pad of paper and pouch of colored pencils. Onyx's room was filled with his sketches. Folders upon folders of them. Again, easy enough to—

Mrs. Urara flipped through the sketch pad, holding up pages, even allowing me to take it. Slowly, I took it, flipping through it, and seeing a sketch of a light-haired girl with glasses and a boy with multi-colored hair. On the back pages were neat, even letterings of a certain girl I know. Jade's handwriting.

Their work in progress. He'd never have left that behind.

Finally, she laid a flashlight on the table. The flashlight from Lyle House—the one I'd watched him put into his bag.

"Onyx slipped going over the fence," she said. "He had his backpack over one shoulder. It fell. Our people were right behind him so he had to leave it. There's something in here that Onyx needs much more than clothing and some silly collaboration."

I wanted to point out that it wasn't silly, their ideas were actually quite good, but she simply continued. She opened a navy nylon pouch. Inside were two vials, both filled with clear liquids.

"The insulin to replace what Onyx's body can't produce. He injects himself with this," she pointed to the one with a red cap. "Every time he eats," he pointed to the silver one. "And every night."

"What happens if he doesn't?" I said, not knowing a thing about diabetes to know what _would_ happen.

Mars took over.

"We aren't going to scare you and say that if Onyx skips a single shot, he'll die. But since we cannot be sure what he is eating, and since he can't eat, he may suffer from two majorly life-threatening conditions for diabetics. Diabetic ketoacidosis or hypoglycemia. By tomorrow, he'll be vomiting. In about three days, he'll lapse into a diabetic coma."

He took the pouch from Ursula's mom and set it in front of me.

"We need to get this to Onyx. To do that, you need to tell us where he is."

I had no clue where Onyx was. I had no idea where to find him. But I did know that he's search for Jade, or remain close to where Jade was.

And Jade was with me.

I didn't tell them this, I agreed to try.

o.0.o.0.o

" _Dawn!"_

I stirred in my sleep, figuring it must have been a drug induced dream. Rolling over, I tried to settle back into my pillow.

" _Dawn! Dawn, wake up!"_

I groaned. Something filtering to my senses. It smelled like cleaner… Not the lemon cleaner of Lyle House, but rather, chemical clean… like in a hospital…

" _DAWN!"_

I jerked awake, looking around the room, only to see the silvery outline of Marina. I stared at her and she blinked back, then smiled.

" _Hey."_

"What are you doing?" I whispered, only to realize I knew _exactly_ what she was doing. We weren't in Lyle House. Paul was being hunted. Onyx's health was at risk. And they wanted us to help find him. Marina looked down, eyes glassy and sad.

" _Did you hear… about Onyx?"_

I averted my gaze and nodded.

" _I never knew. Arceus, I'm so stupid. I should've known! Onyx is just never one to hide things like that, I'm surprised he did."_

"Maybe he was instructed to." I murmured. "In case something like this happened. Something to use as leverage. He's so gullible that I wouldn't be surprised if he believed it."

" _Jade's a wreck."_ Marina murmured, settling on my bed. " _She didn't know. When Onyx dropped his bag, he wanted to go back, but she yelled at him. Said his sketchpad wasn't important. Said that we could just get him new things if he needed it. She didn't know and now she's a wreck."_

Jade? Of all people who I thought would be disturbed by this piece of information, Jade was the least likely option. Even so, I could understand. Those two were close. Really close. So for Jade to realize that it was her fault that Onyx's health was in danger…

" _They told her, and she took the news hard. Like, really, really hard."_ Marina said as she began wringing her hands. " _Like, hard enough that she's still crying about it. I guess however she took it, or however they made it out to be, the poor kids on his deathbed and we aren't seeing him again."_

"You don't think… she'll give them up, do you?"

" _I don't know."_ she shook her head. " _Onyx, maybe, but the others? I'm not sure. She really, really needs someone to talk to."_

"What are we going to do?"

" _That's where I come in,"_ Marina smiled with a wink. " _I'm a great actor, but they're going to trust you the most. So I'm going give you a little story to tell…"_

o.0.o.0.o

In a good drama, according to Marina, the protagonist never takes the straight line to the prize. She must set out, hit an obstacle, detour around it, hit another, take a longer detour, another obstacle, another detour…. Only when she has built up the strength of character to deserve the prize does she finally succeed.

I suppose our stories were already fitting the time-honored pattern. Think about it. Dawn Hikari, sixteen-year-old Johana Hikari wannabe, her dreams of coordinating and upstanding the woman who was her mother shattered on the day she saw her first ghost and started living the kind of life she'd once imagined putting on the screen.

It was like that with all of us. Seeing ghosts, acquiring super strength, flareon and glaceon ears, night terrors of being out of the body...

No doubt after freaking out at school, in home, hurting people or what have you, all of us were taken away by the men in the white jackets and shipped off to a group home for mentally disturbed teens. Problem is, I really _did_ see ghosts. And I wasn't the only kid at Lyle House with supernatural powers.

Jimmy could cast spells. Onyx could burn people with his bare fingers. Marina could leave her body and heal. Jade could make the temperature in the room drop. Paul had superhuman strength and senses and, apparently, soon would be able to change into a mightyena. Ursula…well, I didn't know what Ursula was—maybe just a screwed-up kid put in Lyle House because her mom helped run it.

Jimmy, Paul, Marina, Onyx, Jade, and I realized it was no coincidence we were in the same place, and we escaped. I got separated from the guys and, after running to my Mom—the person I had trusted most in the world—I ended up here, in some kind of laboratory run by the same people who owned Lyle House.

Now they expected me to help them bring in Onyx, Jimmy, and Paul?

Well, now it was time for these people to face their own drama. Marina told me that it was time to introduce a few obstacles of our own. So, in the spirit of proper storytelling, we came up with scheme and told Mars where to find Onyx, Jimmy, and Paul.

Step one: establish the goal. "I was supposed to hide while the guys stayed behind to distract you with Onyx's fire and Paul's strength, maybe meet up with Jimmy, if necessary," I told Mars. "Paul pulled me back and said, if we got separated, we'd meet at the rendezvous point."

Step two: introduce the obstacle. "Where is the rendezvous point? That's the problem. I don't know where it is. We talked about needing one, but everything was so crazy that day. We'd only just decided to escape, and then Paul was saying it had to be that night. Paul and Jimmy must have picked a rendezvous point, and forgot they never told me where it was."

Step three: map out the detour. "But I do have some ideas—places we talked about. One of them must be the rendezvous point. I could help you find it. They'll be looking for me, so they might hide until they see me."

Rather than escape this place, I'd let them take me out by using me as bait. I'd list places Marina and I'd never discussed with Jimmy or Paul, and there would be no chance they'd get captured. A brilliant plan.

The response?

"We'll keep that in mind, Dawn. But for now, just tell us the locations. We have ways to find the boys once we get there."

Obstacles. To Marina, they were an essential part of the storytelling process. But in real life? They suck.

After Mars and Ursula's mom had gotten my list of fake rendezvous points, they left, giving me nothing in return—no answers, no clues about why I was here or what would happen to me.

I sat cross-legged on my bed, staring down at the necklace in my hands as if it were a crystal ball that could provide all those answers. My dad had given it to me back when I was seeing "bogeymen"—ghosts, as I now knew. She said the necklace would stop them from coming, and it did. I'd always figured, like my mom said, that it was psychological. I believed in it, so it worked. Now, I wasn't so sure.

Had my dad known I was a necromancer? She must have, if the blood ran in her family. Was the necklace supposed to ward off ghosts? If so, its power must have faded. It even looked faded—I swore the bright purple jewel had gone a indigo-ish color, like the red was fading from the purple. One thing it didn't do, though, was answer my questions. That I had to do for myself.

I put the necklace back on. Whatever Saturn, Jupiter, or Mars- or as I know them, Dr. Pluto, Miss Van Curd, and Mrs. Talbot-wanted from me, it wasn't good. 'Good doctors' don't lock up kids they want to help.

I certainly wasn't going to tell them how to find Onyx. If he needed insulin, he would get it, even if it meant breaking into a drugstore. Onyx wasn't above stealing, especially to keep himself alive.

I had to concentrate on getting Marina, Jade, and myself out. But this wasn't Lyle House, where the only thing standing between us and freedom was an alarm system. This room might look like it belonged in a nice hotel—with a double bed, a carpeted floor, an armchair, desk, and private bathroom—but there were no windows and no knob on the inside of the door.

I'd hoped to get Zoey's help escaping. My roommate at Lyle House, Zoey hadn't made it out alive, so when I first got here, I'd summoned her ghost, hoping she could help me find a way out. Only problem? Zoey didn't realize she was dead. As gently as I could, I'd broken the news. She'd flipped out, accusing me of lying, and disappeared.

Topaz, as of yet, has been unresponsive since I first summoned Zoey. I don't know if she's talking to her or what, but I'd called her multiple times in my head and she hasn't responded.

Marina could always try as well, but the astral projection had strange side effects, she says. Says she gets sleepy, sometimes hit with dizzy spells and sick. And she says she googled the term, and apparently, astral projectors are at risk of never regaining control of their body. Apparently, with their spirits gone, they're at risk for someone else, someone _dead,_ taking over their body to restart their life. Ever since she found that out, Marina's been trying to control the astral projection, only leaving when absolutely necessary.

Maybe Marina was being paranoid, and rightly so, so I decided to let her believe that and pray that Zoey was okay. Hopefully, she'd had enough time to cool off. I doubted it, but I couldn't wait.

I had to try summoning her again.

o.0.o.0.o

I prepared for séance. As set pieces went, this one was so lame no one would ever believe it was actually a séance. No sputtering candles to cast eerie shadows on the walls, no moldy skulls forming a ritual circle, no chalices filled with what the audience would suppose was red wine but secretly hope was blood.

Did experienced necromancers use stuff like candles and incense? From the little I'd learned about the supernatural world, I knew some of what we see in movies is true. Maybe, way back in history, people had known about necromancers and witches and shifters, and those stories are based, if very loosely, on old truths. Heck, I think gijinka's were regarded as something of legends, messengers between the pokémon gods and humans, something akin to angels…

Sighing, I stared at my pathetic setup.

My method—if I can call it a method since I've only used it twice—came from trial and error and a few grudging tips from Paul. As a guy who was taking college-level courses at seventeen, being confident of his facts is important to Paul. If he isn't sure, he'd rather keep his mouth shut. But when I'd pushed him, he'd told me that he'd heard that necromancers summoned ghosts either by being at a graveside or by using a personal effect, like Zoey's hoodie, so I was sitting cross-legged on the carpet, clutching it.

I pictured Zoey and imagined myself pulling her out of limbo. At first, I didn't try very hard. The last time I'd focused all my power into summoning a ghost, I'd summoned two right back into their buried corpses. I wasn't near a grave this time, but that didn't mean there weren't bodies around somewhere. So I kept the voltage low at first, gradually ramping it up, focusing harder and harder until…

" _What the—? Hey, who are you?_ "

My eyes flew open. There stood a blond boy about my age with the build, looks, and arrogant chin tilt of an expert battler. Finding the ghost of another teenager in this place wasn't a coincidence. A name popped into my head—that of another Lyle House resident who'd been taken away before I arrived, supposedly transferred to a mental hospital, like Zoey.

"Barry?" I said tentatively.

" _Yeah, but I don't know you. Or this place._ "

He pivoted, scanning the room, then rubbed the back of his neck. I stopped myself before asking if he was okay. Of course he wasn't okay. He was dead. Like Zoey. I swallowed. He whirled back on me, putting a finger in my face.

" _You tell me what's going on or I'll fine you!"_

"What happened to you?" I asked softly. He jumped, as if startled by my voice.

"Is someone else here?" I asked, hoping he sensed Zoey or Topaz, beyond the pale where I couldn't see her.

" _I thought I heard…_ " He studied me, frowning. " _You brought me here?_ "

"I—I didn't mean to. But…since you are here, can you tell me—?"

" _Nothing. I can't tell you anything._ " He squared his shoulders. " _Whatever you want to talk about, I'm not interested._ "

He looked away, determined not to be interested. When he started to fade, I was ready to let him go. Rest in peace. Then I thought about Onyx and Jade and Jimmy and Paul and Marina. If I didn't get some answers, we might all join Barry and Zoey and Topaz in the afterlife.

"My name's Dawn," I said quickly. "I'm a friend of Marina's. From Lyle House. I was there with her, after you—"

He kept fading.

"Wait!" I said. "I c-can prove it. Back at Lyle House. You tried getting into a fight with Paul, and Jimmy shoved you away. Only he didn't touch you. He used magic."

" _Magic?_ "

"It was a spell that knocks people back. Jimmy's a sorcerer. All the kids in Lyle House—"

"I _knew it! I knew it! I swear, when I see those doctor jerks again, I'll fine them so bad they'll be in debt in the next life!_ " He swore under his breath as he rematerialized. " _All that time, they kept trying to shove their diagnosis down my throat, and I told them where else they could shove it, but I couldn't prove anything._ " he hovered close to me. " _I'm not normal. It's not normal ADHD. It's not something like that, I know it's not._ "

"You told the nurses what happened with Jimmy, didn't you?"

" _Nurses?_ " He snorted. " _Glorified security guards. I wanted to speak to the real boss: Cyrus."_

"… Cyrus?" I asked, not recognizing the name. Barry rolled his eyes.

" _The big man. The big bad boss. The 'head doctor'._ "

"I… haven't met him."

" _Good thing too. Guys creepy. Real creepy._ " he shrugged. _"They took me to see him at this other place, looked like a warehouse._ "

I described what I'd seen of this building when we'd arrived.

" _Yeah, that's it. They took me inside and…_ " His face screwed up in thought. " _A woman came to talk to me. A little old woman. Said she was a doctor. Bellows…? Fellows?_ "

Agatha. Agatha Fellows. My heart battered my rib cage.

"So this woman, Dr. Fellows…"

" _She wanted me to say Paul started the fight. That he threatened me, punched me, shoved me, whatever. I considered it. A little payback for all the attitude I had to put up with from that jerk. I'd just been goofing around with him when Jimmy got all up in my face and smacked me with that spell._ "

In the version I'd heard, Barry had been the one getting in Paul' face. Jimmy had a good reason for interfering, too—the last time Paul took a swing, he'd broken a kid's back.

"So Dr. Fellows wanted you to say Paul started the fight…."

" _I wouldn't. I'd have to deal with the fallout when I went back to Lyle House and I didn't need that grief. That's when Pluto came in. He hauled her out of the room, but I could still hear him chewing her out in the hall. She kept saying Paul was a menace and that she believed what some Johanna woman said or something. The only reason Pluto kept him was because he couldn't admit he made a mistake by including Paul's type._ "

"Type?"

" _In the experiment._ "

A chill settled in my gut.

"Ex-experiment?"

Barry shrugged.

" _I think she said something about rounds… how Paul and other kids in that 'round' shouldn't have been allowed to leave the hospital. That's all she said. Pluto told her to shove off. He said he made a mistake with the half of them, but the other half was different. Paul was different._ "

Rounds? Others? How many rounds were there? Did Paul and I belong in a different round? If so, how? And by 'others', did Pluto mean other shifters? Or other subjects in this experiment?

"Did they say any—?" I began.

His head whipped to the side, as if seeing something out of the corner of his eye.

"What is it?" I asked.

" _Don't you hear that?_ "

I listened. Hearing nothing, I shot him an odd glance.

"What is it?"

" _Whispering._ "

"It could be Zoey. She—"

Barry went rigid. His eyes rolled. Then his head flew back, the tendons in his neck popping out, bones crackling. His throat convulsed and he gurgled. Instinctively I reached out to help. My hands passed through him, but I could feel the heat of his body, a scorching heat that made me fall back in surprise.

As I recovered, Barry went still again. His chin lowered and he rolled his shoulders, as if working out the kinks. Then he looked down at me. His once bright orange eyes were now glowing a dark red. The chill in my gut slunk up my spine.

" _Frightened, child?_ " The voice coming out of Barry's mouth was a woman's, so high and light it was almost girlish. " _Your instincts are excellent, but you have nothing to fear from me._ "

 _Topaz… Where was Topaz…?!_

"W-where's Barry?"

She looked down at the body she was possessing.

" _Do you like him? He is pretty, isn't he? All of dear Dr. Lyle's creations are so very pretty. Perfect balls of perfect energy, waiting to explode._ "

 _Topaz… Topaz!_

In a blink, "Barry" was in front of me, his face coming down to mine, bathing me in scorching hot breath that smelled strangely sweet. Those red eyes met mine, the pupils slitted like a cat's.

" _The boy and those girls can't help you, child. But I can. You just need to—_ "

Her eyes rolled back, darkening to Barry's orange, then back to red as she snarled.

" _They're pulling him back to the other side. Call me, child. Quickly._ "

"C-call—"

" _Call me forth. I can—_ "

Her eyes rolled again, her snarl deepening into something inhuman, a sound that made the chill in my veins harden to ice. I stepped back and smacked into the wall.

" _Call me forth,_ " she said, voice going ragged, deepening into Barry's. " _I can answer all your questions. That girl you have as a guide… that other girl you've been trying to form a bond with… this boy can do nothing...Call me—_ "

Barry's image wavered, then popped, like a TV screen after the power cord is pulled. One flash of white light and he was gone. I thought I heard a knock at the door but couldn't move, just stared at the spot where Barry had been.

The door opened, and Dr. Pluto stepped in to find me plastered to the wall.

"Dawn?"

I staggered forward, rubbing my arms.

"Dawn?"

"S-Spinark," I said, pointing to the bed. "It r-ran under there."

Dr. Pluto struggled to hide a smirk.

"Don't worry. I'll get someone to take care of it, while we're gone. We're going to go for a walk. It's time you got a proper tour and a proper explanation."

o.0.o.0.o

 **And thus a new part to a saga begins.**

 **Amy47101 signing off! ^.^**


	2. Chapter 2

**I know that this was long overdo, but I'm literally working on this because I'm having writers block on everything else. -.-"**

 **Amy47101 does not own pokémon or the** _**Darkest Powers Saga**_ **. She only owns her OCs, Jade, Onyx, and Topaz. All rights go to their respective owners.**

o.0.o.0.o

 _The Awakening_

o.0.o.0.o

As I followed Dr. Pluto down the hall, I tried to shake off thoughts of whatever had been in my room. I was a necromancer: ghosts were my one and only specialty. So it had to be a ghost, no matter how strongly every instinct in me insisted it wasn't. All I knew for sure was that I was in no hurry to go back in there.

"Now, Dawn—" Dr. Pluto stopped, noticing me rubbing the lingering goose bumps on my arms. "Cold? I'll have them turn up the heat in your room. Your comfort is important to us."

We started walking again.

"Dr. Pluto-"

"Enough of that Dr. Pluto nonsense." Dr. Pluto said, waving a hand through the air. "We must establish trust, and I would prefer it if you called myself, Mars, and Jupiter by our names."

"So… Saturn." I said, furrowing my brow. I had so many questions I didn't know where to begin. How did they know about the escape? Was Zoey really dead? What was going on, and how much did they really know about our powers?

Just as I opened my mouth to ask me first, and probably safest question, Saturn spoke again.

"But comfort isn't just physical, is it?" he continued on from his early statement, turning his gaze forward, eyes thoughtful. "Equally important, perhaps even more, is mental comfort. A sense of security. I know you're upset and confused, and it didn't help when we refused to answer your questions. We were eager to start checking those places you listed."

He hadn't been gone long enough to visit spots miles away. I knew what he'd really been checking: whether Marina and Jade corroborated my story. They would. Marina knew of our trick, and Jade was smart enough to play along.

Saturn opened a door at the end of the hall. It was a security station, the wall lined with flat-screen monitors. Inside, a young man spun in his chair, like he'd been caught surfing porn sites.

"Why don't you go grab a coffee, Rob," Saturn said. "We'll take over."

He turned to me as the guard left. "You'll be seeing more of the building later. For now"—he waved at the screens—"consider this the one-stop tour."

Perhaps Paul's accusation that I radiated ditziness was true. Did Saturn think I was stupid? I knew what he was really doing: showing me how well guarded this place was, in case I was planning another escape. But he was also giving me a chance to study what I was up against.

"As you can see, there's no camera in your room," he said, "nor in any of the bedrooms. Just in the hallway."

Two hall cameras, one at each end. I scanned the other screens. Some flipped between cameras, giving multiple angles of halls and entryways. Two showed laboratories, both empty, the lights dim, probably because it was Sunday.

An older model monitor was propped on the desk, cords every which way, like it had been quickly set up. The tiny picture screen was black-and-white and showed what looked like a storage room, all the boxes shoved along the walls. I could see the back of a girl in an elegant looking chair.

She was flipping idly through a book or a magazine, a Garchomp dutifully standing guard. I narrowed my eyes at the pokémon, the first one I've seen since I've come here. I'd recognize those pink, pigtail drills anywhere, so it could only be Ursula. Or maybe it was an impostor set up to convince me that she was okay, reading magazines, not locked up, screaming for—

The girl in the chair reached for what looked like a fancy coffee drink, whipped cream on the top with chocolate drizzle, and I saw her face. Ursula.

"Yes, as Ursula has informed us, the decor is terribly outdated. But once we promised to update the rooms with some finer necessities, she resigned herself to the entertainment we provided her."

As he spoke, his eyes never left the screen. The expression on his face was…fond. Weirdly, the very word Mars used earlier for Paul seemed to fit here.

When he turned to me, his expression rearranged itself, as if to say 'I like you well enough, Dawn, but you're no Ursula'. I felt…bewildered. Maybe even a little hurt, like there was still part of me that wanted to please, to outdo Ursula.

He waved at the screen.

"As you can see, we weren't prepared to have you kids with us here, but we're adjusting. While it will never be as cozy as Lyle House, the eighteen-" he quickly cleared his throat at that, glancing at me. I pretended to not catch on, but I heard what he said. Eighteen.

There were others outside of the residents of Lyle House.

"...Seven of you will be comfortable here, perhaps more so, with all those unfortunate misrepresentations corrected."

Seven of us? That must mean he didn't plan to put Paul "down like a rabid dog," as Agatha and my mother wanted. I breathed a soft sigh of relief.

"I won't apologize, Dawn," Dr. Pluto continued. "Perhaps I should, but we thought setting up Lyle House was the best way to handle the situation."

He waved me to a chair. There were two, the one the security guard had vacated and a second, pushed against the wall. As I stepped toward the second one, it rolled from the shadows and stopped right in front of me.

"No, that's not a ghost," Dr. Pluto said. "They can't move objects in our world—unless they happen to be a very specific kind, namely the ghost of an Agito."

"A what?"

"Agito. It's Latin roughly translating to 'put into motion.' Shifters come in many types, you'll discover. An Agito's power, as the name might suggest, is telekinesis."

Feeling the need to impress and suck up still, I turned to him, recognizing the term.

"Moving things with the mind."

"Very good." I internally smiled at the praise. "And it is an Agito who moved that chair, though one who is still very much alive."

I furrowed my brow, staring at the chair, then slowly turning my gaze to him.

"You?"

He smiled and, for a second, the mask of the intelligent, caring man cracked, and I caught a glimpse of the real man beneath. What I saw was pride and arrogance, like a classmate flashing his A+ paper as if to say 'top that'.

So a psychic type shifter. I suppose that 'Agito' was the sciency term for it, but regardless, that made me wonder. Saturn never seemed to show any signs of shifting to and from a pokémon form. He even looked normal, like an average man.

"Yes, I'm descended of a strong shifting supernatural, as is almost everyone who works here." his eyes drifted to the chair, studying it curiously. "As you can probably tell, the years of being married to non-supernaturals and supernaturals of different types dulled down the gene a bit, but with a bit of practice, I've grown to be quite powerful." he returned his gaze to me. "Now I know what you must have been thinking—that we're humans who've discovered your powers and wish to destroy what we don't understand, like in those comic books."

I could almost imagine a sarcastic response from Onyx. His words flashed in my mind, something I picked up during a meal, perhaps, about him fervently talking of comic books and such.

"The X-Men."

I don't know what was more shocking, that Dr. Pluto and his colleagues were supernaturals or the image of this awkward man reading X-Men. Had he pored over them as a boy, imagining himself in Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters?

Did that mean Mom was a necromancer? That she saw ghosts, too?

He continued before I could ask anything.

"The Galactic Group was founded by supernaturals eighty years ago. And as much as it has grown since those early days, it's still an institution run by supernaturals and for supernaturals, dedicated to bettering the lives of our kind."

I furrowed my brow.

"Galactic Group?"

"Named by a descendant of our great leader, Cyrus."

My ears perked up at that. Barry mentioned Cyrus being the big boss… My mind wracked for something so we could linger on the topic of Saturn's boss, when it suddenly hit me. I was young when it happened, but I remembered my Dad, ever the historical geek, gushing about it like a kid in a candy store.

"Cyrus… Didn't he help translate some runes or something in Celestic Town?"

"That's what he's best known for thus far." Saturn responded. "But he himself is a very _powerful,_ very _rare_ type of supernatural." he sighed, clearly in admiration for his leader. "He's leading this group now, the duty passed from his father to him. But despite his power, you, Dawn, have accomplished something Cyrus and past generations of his family dreamed of but never succeeded in doing."

A dramatic pause.

"Contacting the dead."

"Cyrus wants to talk to the dead?" I asked, trying to pry more information about his man. Maybe I can barter something using my powers.

"His great, great, great grandfather believed in an afterlife and wanted to communicate with it. not through séances and spiritualism but through science. When he died, it's thought he was working on just such a device—a telephone to the afterlife. No plans for it were ever found." Saturn smiled conspiratorially. "Or, at least, not officially. Cyrus's ancestors decided to adopt the name Galactic, and like his ancestor, we take a scientific approach to matters of the paranormal."

Improving supernatural lives through science. Where had I heard something like that? It took me a moment to remember, and when I did, I shivered.

The ghosts I'd raised in the Lyle House basement had been subjects of experiments by a sorcerer named Samuel Lyle. Willing subjects, at first, they'd said, because they'd been promised a better life. Instead, they'd ended up lab rats sacrificed to the vision of a madman, as one ghost had put it. And that thing in my room had called Barry—and me, I think—Samuel Lyle's "creations."

"Dawn?"

"S-sorry. I'm just—"

"Tired, I imagine, after being up all night. Would you like a rest?"

"No, I-I'm fine. It's just—So how do we fit in? And Lyle House? It's part of an experiment, isn't it?"

His chin lifted, not much, just enough of a reaction to tell me I'd caught him off guard and that he didn't like it. A pleasant smile erased the look and he eased back in his chair.

"It is an experiment, Dawn. I know how that must sound, but I assure you, it's a noninvasive study, using only benign psychological therapy."

Benign? There was nothing benign about what had happened to Zoey, Barry. and possibly Topaz.

"Okay, so we're part of this experiment…." I said.

"Being a supernatural is both a blessing and curse. Adolescence is the most difficult time for us, as our powers begin to manifest. One of the Galactic Group's theories is that it might be easier if our children don't know of their future."

"Don't know they're supernatural?"

"Yes, instead allowing them to grow up as human, assimilating into human society without anxiety over the upcoming transition. You and the others are part of that study. For most, it has worked. But for others, such as you, your powers came too quickly. We needed to ease you into the truth and ensure you didn't harm yourselves or anyone else in the meantime."

So they put us into a group home and told us we were crazy? Drugged us? That made no sense. What about Jimmy and Paul, who'd already known what they were? And I'm fairly certain Jade and Onyx implied gijinka's were born with ears. How could they be part of this study? Barry was pretty certain that he wasn't normal, and he was fairly sure that Paul and Jimmy knew they weren't normal either. In fact, now that I think about it, the only three who _didn't_ know the full extent of what they were were me, Marina, and possibly Ursula.

But Barry also said that there was something about rounds. Rounds, I'm guessing, in experiments. So could the three of us be a part of a separate round? Was I safe to assume that we were even given the powers through experimentation, or they were at least enhanced? And what about that thing calling us Dr. Lyle's creations? What about Barry, Topaz, and Zoey, permanently removed from this study? Murdered. You don't kill a subject when he or she doesn't respond well to your "benign psychological therapy."

They'd lied all along—did I really think they'd fess up now? If I wanted the truth, I needed to do what I'd been doing. Search for my own answers.

So I let Saturn blather on, telling me about their study, about the other kids, about how we'd be "fixed" and out of here in no time. And I smiled and nodded and started making my own plans.

Eighteen kids, minus Ursula and not including me, meant that there was a total of at least sixteen allies out there. I've got two of them here with me, and three of them are close by, either running for their lives or trying to make a rescue plan.

But what of the other twelve? Where they here, or scattered across Sinnoh? No doubt if Saturn was speaking of them, they were still alive, but still…

How desperate was Saturn and this Galactic Group to get them back?

o.0.o.0.o

When Saturn was done with the propaganda, he asked me if I wanted to see Marina, Jade, or Ursula. I immediately chose Marina, figuring her to be the safest option of the three. He led me through the hallway, and into a plain room with a TV and a game console. I blinked, then slowly looked up, seeing a security camera. They were monitoring our conversation.

He simply shut the door, leaving me inside. I curiously walked towards the door and tried the doorknob. Expectedly, it was locked.

I glanced around the room again.

"What's going on?"

That was Marina's voice. Her tone was light and airy, the perfect voice of an actor playing a bubbly teenager, but behind it, I could hear her true emotions. She was guarded. The door simply opened, and with a smile, Mars showed Marina the inside. Seeing me, she widened her eyes, the bounded across the room. She hugged me, then pulled back. I noticed the door shut and lock behind her.

"Oh, wow, Dawn." Marina winced, staring at my face. "You need some sleep. You look like death."

"That's just the necromancer genes kicking in." I joked back.

She laughed and gave me another hug before plunking down in a beanbag chair. Despite our long night on the run, Marina looked fine. But then Marina was one of those girls who always looked fine—perfect clear creamy skin; teal green eyes; and straight hair that were always pulled in gravity defying pigtails, a light blue that, if they caught the light right, glinted like sunlight on water.

"Come on," she said, patting the bean bag next to her. "I've been here before, with Ursula. We suggested some renovations and all. When the renovations are done, though, you won't recognize the place. Stereo system, DVD player, computer… All the fixings. And, as of tomorrow, we're getting a Wii."

"Really?"

"Yep. I said, 'People, if I'm helping you with this study of yours, I need a little love in return'." she pointedly stared at a GameCube in the corner. " And a GameCube ain't gonna cut it.'"

"Did you ask for a bigger TV, too?"

"I should have. After the whole Lyle House screwup, they're tripping over themselves to make us happy. We are going to be so spoiled here." she smiled cheekily. "Of course, we deserve it."

I smiled back.

"We do."

She grinned, her face glowing.

"Did you hear? I'm a Shaman. Healer and future detector and stuff. They say that Shamans are children of angels, thus their abilities. Cool, huh?"

She said this like we never discussed this at Lyle House, but her voice wavered only slightly, clearly still afraid of what was to come. Being a shaman was cool. But being a shaman lab rattata, teetering on the brink of extermination? Definitely not cool. But by the way she talked, I was seriously concerned that she didn't know the full extent of what was going on here. That three lives, young and vibrant, were lost to these men and women that were trying to get us to trust us. As much as I longed to tell her the truth, though, I couldn't. Not yet.

I shot a glance at the camera. I knew that Marina was just putting on the front act to get them to trust us, enough for us to have a conversation without the prying eyes of Galactic grunts. She knew something was up, I could tell by the look in her eyes. She was scared, terrified, but cooperating.

"And you know what else?" she said, catching my attention. This time, her voice was soft, as if she was actually happy and curious. "They showed me pictures of my mom. My real mom. None of my dad, of course, being an angel. Kind of freaky when you think about it. But Dr. P. says that it doesn't make you immortal or ethereal or whatever."

"But at least it explains your beauty." I said. Marina giggled behind her hand.

"I know, right? Anyway, my mom? Her name was Ayana. Isn't that pretty?"

I opened my mouth to agree, but she kept rambling excitedly.

"She used to work here, like Jimmy's dad. They have pictures of her. She was gorgeous. Like a model. And Dr. P. said they might even know where to find her, and they're going to try." she averted her gaze, glancing at the camera. "Just for me."

"What about your adoptive parents?"

The clouds descended again, lingering longer, and I felt bad, being the one to bring her down. First telling Zoey she was dead, then making Barry become a ghost puppet of something not quite human, now reminding Marina of her parents…I was trying to get answers to help all of us. But it felt cruel.

After a moment, Marina said, "They aren't supernaturals."

"Oh?"

"Nope, just humans." she shrugged, as if indifferent to the matter. "They said when my mom left here, she cut off all ties with the group. Somehow I got put up for adoption. Dr. P. says that must have been a mistake. Ayana loved me. She'd never have given me up. He says that story my adoptive parents told me, about her not being able to keep me, was a lie, and if the Galactic Group had known about the adoption, they'd have found me parents like us. By the time they tracked me down, though, it was too late, so all they could do was monitor me."

She sighed, as if the information was saddening to her. As far as I knew, Marina's relationship with her adoptive parents, her mother, specifically, was strained. A lot of kids in the house had strained relationships with their parents, if they weren't dead.

"When they found out I was having problems, they contacted my adoptive parents and offered me a free stay at Lyle House. I bet it'll probably be weeks before my folks even notice I'm not there anymore, and then they'll just breathe a big sigh of relief."

"I can't see—"

"I was at Lyle House for almost a month. Do you know how many times my parents came to visit? Called?" She held up her thumb and forefinger in an O.

"Maybe they weren't allowed to visit. Maybe they left messages that you never got."

Her nose scrunched. "Why wouldn't I get them?"

"Because your adoptive parents aren't supernaturals. Having them interfering would complicate things."

Her eyes grew distant as she considered this. A spark flickered through them—hope that she'd been mistaken, that the only parents she'd ever known hadn't abandoned her.

She gave her head a sharp shake. "No, I was trouble, and Mom was glad to get rid of me." Her hands gripped the beanbag tight, then released it and patted out the creases. "It's better this way. I'm better this way."

Better a special shaman embarking on a new life than a regular girl, sent back to her regular life with her regular parents.

But her eyes glistened with unshed tears, continuously flicking back to the camera, the light still flickering red, indicating the prying eyes. She knew what she was saying was a lie, she would give anything to go back to her life of theatre. Just as I would love to go back to my life of coordinating.

This act, the cooperative, bubbly Marina, was threatening to tear her apart.

o.0.o.0.o

I had lunch with Marina. Pizza. Ursula was there too, but instead was eating a salad. A special order, probably, still bent on impressing the doctors and her mother. But overall, unlike Lyle House, here they seemed more concerned with keeping us happy than keeping us healthy.

Maybe because they aren't planning on keeping us alive?

Ursula was talking to us. Not snide comments or anything, but actually talking. She was excited, saying that she was a witch and all that, not at all concerned about the means that we were all prisoners. Upon talking to her, hearing her excitement, I had enough distance from the pain and betrayal to face a very real, very disturbing possibility.

What if I was wrong? About everything?

I didn't have any evidence that the people here had actually killed Zoey and Barry. Zoey had "dreamed" of being in some kind of hospital room, restrained. For all I knew, she'd died in a car crash when they were bringing her here. Or she'd committed suicide that night. Or, in trying to restrain her, they'd accidentally killed her.

But Zoey and Barry just happened to both have died accidentally after leaving Lyle House? And what of Topaz? She claimed to have been a supernatural too, a necromancer, if I wasn't mistaken. She was adopted by Onyx's parents, and from what I know, there was a falling out and his mom took Opal, Onyx had to stay with his dad, and Topaz disappeared shortly after that. How could a girl who clearly seemed connected to all this madness end up dead? How come everyone, adult and child alike, who were connected to the Galactic group ended up dead?

Marina's birth mom and Jimmy's dad both happened to have a falling-out with the Galactic Group and fled, taking their study subject kids with them?

No, there was definitely something wrong here. I needed answers and I wasn't going to find them locked in my cell. Nor was I eager to meet that... _thing_ in my room again.

Just as I thought that, Saturn arrived to take me back there. As I followed him down the hall, I scrambled for an excuse to go someplace else in the building, any way to add details to my mental map of the place.

I considered asking to speak to my Mom. I'd have to pretend I'd forgiven her for lying to me my entire life, betraying me, and tossing me to the mercy of the Galactic Group. But I wasn't Marina and that meant I wasn't that good an actor. And Mom wasn't that stupid. There was a reason she hadn't tried to see me. She was biding her time, waiting until I got lonely for a familiar face, desperate for an explanation, her excuses. Until then, she'd stay away.

There was one other person I could ask to speak to….

The thought made my heart wrench in pity. If what Marina said was true…

I shook my head. No, I needed answers. We all do.

"Saturn?" I said as we approached my door.

"Yes, Dawn." his voice wasn't questioning, as if this response was automatic. I swallowed.

"Is Jade here?"

"She is." Another automatic response.

"I was thinking… I'd like to see her, make sure she's all right."

Saturn looked at me, face unreadable, before he smiled.

"You got along well with Jade back at Lyle House, didn't you?"

I mutely nodded.

"That's good! It's a splendid idea, Dawn. She's really upset right now, so I think seeing a friend is a good thing."

I swallowed. Make sure she knows you're okay, Dawn. Make sure you remind her that we'll find Onyx, and he'll be okay too. Make sure that she's aware that everything will be just fine, as soon as she gives us the answers we need.

o.0.o.0.o

Saturn continued to spout how this was a "splendid idea," meaning he had no clue that I still had trouble believing that Jade didn't rat us out, and that I was about to confront her about it. As for getting a better look at the place—that plan didn't work so well. Her cell turned out to be only a few doors from mine.

When he opened the door, a blast of cold smacked me in the face. I let out a small gasp, not quite expecting it. Regardless, the doctor ushered me in, then locked the door. Jade was sitting on her bed, smack in the middle of the room, cross-legged, head bowed. Her blond hair was hanging in her face. Some food sat off to the side, smashed against the wall. I stepped forward. The carpet under my feet crunched, fibers frozen. I glanced at Jade again. She was holding something loosely in her hands, a sketchpad. Onyx's sketchpad. Their sketchpad.

Jade's ears twitched when the bolt slid home. I inched back again, ready to scream at the first sign of trouble. From what I knew, Jade was pretty stable when it came to her powers, but unstable with emotions. She had no clue how to handle this, and for all I knew, she was a walking ice bomb.

"Come back to taunt me more."

It wasn't a question, but a demand.

"I don't know where he is. You shot at me and knocked me out before I could get anything. I. Don't. Know."

"J-Jade…"

Her head slowly rose, eyes unfocused as they always were, blind to the world. She didn't dare move from the mattress, but she scowled.

"Huh. I guess if stern lectures don't work, they can always resort to torture. Tell them I surrender, as long as they take you away. Please."

"I came to—"

"Try to get me on your side?" I opened my mouth. "I found out about Hope." she continued. My mouth clamped shut. "I know they shot at her. And I know she got hit. What I don't know is if she's dead or alive."

Her hands shook.

"You know, they want Paul dead. How do I know they didn't use real bullets, and she got hit?"

"That's not true!" I exclaimed. "Saturn wants Paul to live, and… and it was a tranquilizer! I showed it to my Mom, she can vouch for me."

"Look where that got you." Jade responded coldly. The temperature seemed to drop in the room. "I don't know how I could have been so foolish. I never should have trusted you or Paul. It should have just been Onyx and me, but he insisted." her glower deepened.

I stepped towards her, now angry, perhaps a little more confident due to it.

"Sure. And I came here to gloat. Get a good laugh at you, locked in a cell, just like I am down the hall."

"But they let you out." Jade murmured. "They. Let. You. Out."

"Hey, we wouldn't be in this at all if it wasn't for you telling the nurses on us. Only you didn't count on getting locked away yourself. That's what we call dramatic irony."

A moment of silence. Then she gave a harsh, forced laugh.

"You think I tattled on you? You knew it wasn't safe for me there." She swung her legs over the side of the bed. "So what'd your schizophrenic mind think up for this one? In a fit of fear for not only myself, but my only friend, I spill your plans, getting you and the guy who gave me nothing but good times sent away to a mental hospital?" she shook her head. "I'm disappointed in you, Dawn. I thought you were smarter than that."

She stood, setting the notebook gently on the bed. She turned to where my voice was. The temperature continued dropping. My breath was visible in spouts of misty smoke.

"Onyx is a good, dear friend. He was the only thing that made me smile in a very long time, Dawn. It's something you wouldn't understand, because you don't know what it's like to truly _hurt._ But I do." her voice dropped, quiet, almost wavering. "Oh, how I know."

She stepped closer. Her skin looked paler than normal, and purple underscored her green eyes.

"That girl I smacked was just like you, Dawn. She's the cheerleader, the cute little blonde, bats her eyelashes and everyone comes running. Just like you at Lyle House, with everyone tripping over themselves to help you."

"I didn't—" I started

"Do anything. That's the point. You can't do anything. You're a silly, useless _doll_ , just like that girl, just like everyone else. And here I stand, smarter, tougher, more experienced, but does that matter? No." She towered a head above me, unseeing eyes somehow catching my gaze. "All anyone cares about is the helpless little damsel. But being helpless only works when there's someone around to save you."

Her hands, clenched in fists, were suddenly surrounded in an icy mist.

"I hate people like you." she hissed. "People who think they know, people who try to act like they know, people who think they even have the mental capacity to understand… I hate you _all!"_

"J-Jade wh-what…?!"

" _SHUT UP!"_

Her voice came out in a screeching scream bouncing off the walls as she finally reached the end of her rope, her powers coming out in full force. Suddenly, sharp icicles were piercing towards me. My mouth opened to scream, arms going up, Jade, as if suddenly realizing what she just did, loosened her fists and stretched out a hand, mouth open in a silent 'no!'.

Someone was screaming. I don't know if it was me or her.

I tried to scramble out of the way, but I wasn't fast enough. As those crackling icicles came at me, a figure materialized—a girl in a pajamas. Zoey. She shoved the dresser, and it shot from the wall and into the ice's path. Wood splintered. The mirror glass shattered, raining shards down on me as I crouched, head down.

When I lifted my head, the room was silent and Zoey was gone. The dresser lay on its side with a hole through it, and all I could think was: _That could have been me._

Jade was frozen in place, the room becoming a little warmer as she backed away from me, away from the destruction she caused. She slowly slid to the floor, her knees pulled up, her face buried within them.

"I-I didn't mean it," she finally said, voice coming out in a whisper. "I didn't mean it. I just… sometimes get so, so mad. And it just happens." she lifted her head up to me, reaching out a wavering hand, face having lost it's stoic, cold mask, now revealing a fearful… fearful child. "Please, Dawn… Please… I didn't mean it… I'm sorry..."

She was like Zoey, making things fly when she got angry. Like Onyx, burning his dad in a fight. Like Paul, throwing a kid and breaking his back. What would happen if I got mad enough?

Uncontrollable powers. That wasn't normal for supernaturals. It couldn't be. And I simply couldn't find it within myself to be scared of Jade. I outright blamed her for this whole thing, in a sense, blaming her for Onyx's maybe-bad state. Jade held everything in for so long, and she was bound to suddenly snap.

I took a slow step toward Jade.

"Jade, it's—"

The door whacked open, and Ursula's mom barreled in. Behind her, her ever conniving daughter, crossing her arms with a sly smirk on her face. Her mother stopped short when she saw the destruction.

"Jade Ishi!" The name came out in a snarl worthy of a werewolf. "What have you done?"

"I-it wasn't her," I said. "It was me. We argued and I—I…"

I stared at the hole blasted through the dresser and I couldn't finish the sentence.

"I know very well who's responsible for this, Miss Dawn." Ursula said. I turned to her. She was idly studying the tips of her curls. "Though I don't doubt you played your role. You're quite the little instigator, aren't you?"

Instigator? Me? A month or so ago, I would have laughed at the thought. But now… Jade said this all started with me, with the guys wanting to save the helpless little girl. I hated that idea. Yet she had a point.

"Ursula, that's enough," Saturn snapped from the doorway. Jade shakily stood. "Jade, dear, Mars is-"

"No!" I exclaimed, remembering Zoey on the night she lost control. I stepped in front of her, prepared to take any blow that they were going to deal. "She can control it, I swear. Ursula is right, I instigated her when she was obviously upset and she snapped. Everyone gets angry, so you can't blame her! She hasn't been let out of here, right? Plus she's worried about Onyx and she's not used to all these emotions! Can you blame her for snapping?!"

I felt a cold hand on my shoulder.

"It's fine, Dawn." Jade said behind me. I could tell by her voice that her mask was back, and the Jade I saw before, barely holding on, then fearfully reaching out, was gone. "I've made my bed, and I'm perfectly willing to lie in it."

With that, she walked around me, hand groping the air for another to lead her to her fate.

o.0.o.0.o

Paul had wanted Jimmy to leave Lyle House and find their dad and his brother. Jimmy wouldn't leave Paul, who refused to go because he was afraid he'd hurt someone else. When Paul figured out Marina was a shaman, and Jade and Onyx gijinka's, he used that to hurt Jimmy's defenses. Then with my appearance as a necromancer, he found his weapon to beat down any argument he had left. One damsel in distress, to go.

I was the poor girl who didn't know anything about being a necromancer, who kept making mistakes, getting closer and closer to being shipped off to a mental hospital. See her, Jimmy? She's in danger. She needs your help. Take her, find Dad and Reggie, and they'll fix everything. In fact, if you really think about it, Jimmy, you could help the others too. Didn't Onyx mention a sister? And what about Marina's real parents? You wouldn't want to hurt them, would you Jimmy? You can help them, Jimmy.

I'd been furious with Paul, and I'd called him on it. But I hadn't refused to go along with the plan. We needed Jimmy's dad and Paul's biological brother—all of us did. Even Paul, who'd eventually joined us when our escape had been uncovered and he had no choice.

If I'd known what was going to happen, would I have stopped searching for answers back at Lyle House? Would I have accepted the diagnosis, taken my meds, shut up, and gotten released?

No. Harsh truth was better than comfortable lies. It had to be.

Saturn took me back to my room, and I told myself I was fine with that. I needed to be alone so I could try again to contact Zoey, now that I knew she was still around.

I started slowly, gradually increasing my efforts until I heard a voice so soft it could have been a hiss from the vent. I looked around, hoping to see Zoey in her white nightshirt and chimchar socks. But there was only me.

"Zoey?"

A soft, but gruff response.

" _Yes?_ "

"I'm sorry," I said, getting to my feet. "I know you're angry with me, but it didn't seem right not to tell you the truth."

She didn't answer.

"I'm going to find out who killed you. I promise."

The words flew to my lips like I was reading a script, but at least I'd had the sense to shut my mouth before promising to avenge her death. That was one of those things that made perfect sense in TV shows, but in real life, you think 'Great…and how exactly would I do that?'. Zoey stayed silent, like she was holding out for more.

"Can I see you?" I said. "Please?"

" _I can't…come through. You need to try harder._ "

I sat back on the floor, hands wrapped around her sunglasses and concentrated.

" _Harder_ ," she whispered.

I squeezed my eyes shut and imagined myself pulling Zoey through. Just one huge yank and—

A familiar tinkling laugh sent me scrambling to my feet. Warm air slid along my unbandaged forearm. I yanked my sleeve down.

"You. I didn't call you."

" _You didn't need to, child. When you summon, spirits must obey. You called to your friend and the shades of a thousand dead answered, winging their way back to their rotted shells._ " Her breath tickled my ear. " _Shells buried in a cemetery two miles away. A thousand corpses ready to become a thousand zombies. A vast army of the dead for you to control._ "

"I—I didn't—"

" _No, you didn't. Not yet. Your powers need time to mature. And then?_ " Her laugh filled the room. " _Dear Dr. Lyle must be dancing in Hell today, his agonies borne away on the thrill of his triumph. Dearly departed, scarcely lamented, deeply demented Dr. Samuel Lyle. Creator of the prettiest, sweetest abomination I have ever seen._ "

"Wh-what?"

" _A bit of this, a bit of that. A twist here, a tweak there. And look what we have_."

I squeezed my eyes shut against the urge to ask what she meant. Whatever this thing was, I couldn't trust her, no more than I could trust Saturn and the Galactic Group.

"What do you want?" I asked.

" _The same thing you do. Freedom from this place._ "

I settled onto the bed. As hard as I looked, though, I couldn't see any sign of her. There was only the voice and the warm breeze.

"You're trapped here?" I asked.

" _Like a fairy under a bell jar, metaphorically speaking. Fairies are a product of the human imagination. Little people flitting about on wings? How positively quaint. A more fitting simile would be to say that I am trapped like a lightning bug in a bottle. For magical energy, nothing quite compares to a soul-bound demi-demon. Except, of course, a soul-bound full demon, but to summon one and attempt to harness its power would be suicide. Just ask Samuel Lyle."_

"He died summoning a demon?"

" _The summoning is usually a forgivable offense. It's soul binding that rather annoys them. Lyle should have been content with me, but humans are never satisfied, are they? Too arrogant to contemplate the possibility of failure, he neglected to pass along the true secret of his success: me._ "

"Your magic powers this place. And they don't even realize it?"

" _Lyle guarded his secrets to the grave and beyond, though taking them into the afterlife was not his intention. I'm sure he meant to tell them about me…had he not died before he got around to it. Even a necromancer as powerful as you would have difficulty contacting a spirit in a hell dimension, so now I am bound here, my power enhancing the magics cast in this place. The others—this Galactic Group—think it's built on the junction of key lines or some such foolishness._ "

"So if I freed you…?"

" _The building would collapse into a pile of smoldering rubble, the evil souls within sucked into Hell, to be tormented by demons for eternity._ " She laughed. " _A pleasant thought, but no, my departure would merely hamper their efforts. Significantly hamper, though—putting an end to their most ambitious projects._ "

" _Release the demon under promise that I'd be repaid handsomely, my enemies destroyed? Hmm, where had I seen this before?"_ I heard Topaz say sarcastically. I glanced around the room, seeing a flickering outline of orangish gold in the corner. Topaz... " _Oh, right. Every fucking demon horror movie ever made. And the horror part started right after the releasing part, by the way._ "

"I don't think so," I said.

" _Ah, yes. Set me free and I shall take my revenge on the world. Start wars and famines, hurl thunderbolts, raise the very dead from their graves…Perhaps you could help with that?_ "

The voice slid to my ear again.

" _You are still such a child, aren't you? Believing in bogeymen. Of all the wars and massacres in the last century, demons are responsible for perhaps a tenth; and that, some would say, gives us too much credit. Unlike humans, we are wise enough to know that destroying the world that sustains us is hardly in our best interests. Free me and, yes, I will have my fun, but I'm no more dangerous out there than I am in here._ "

I considered it…

" _You stupid twit! It's a demon!_ " Topaz shouted.

"I don't think so."

Her sigh ruffled my shirt.

" _There is no sight sadder than a desperate demi-demon. After decades alone in this place, beating the bars of my cage, howling to deaf ears, I'm reduced to begging favors from a child. Ask me your questions, and I shall play schoolteacher, answering them at no cost. I was a schoolteacher once, you know, when a foolish witch summoned me and invited possession, which is never wise, even if you're trying to destroy the dreadful little village that accused you of—_ "

" _She doesn't have any fucking questions, nitwit._ "

A wave of relief washed over me as a familiar voice resounded in my other ear. Topaz was closer now, almost clearly visible, but still wavering, like she was underwater, and the water was rippling.

" _Yeah, if anyone has questions, it's me! Wait your turn or I'm fining you!"_

Barry too…?

I heard the demon sigh, a hissing noise that made my skin crawl. I swallowed the bile that rose in my throat, let out a sigh to calm myself, then lifted my head. I'm not alone here, I've got Topaz and Barry. Everything will be fine.

"I don't have any questions." I said clearly.

" _None_?"

"None."

" _Speaking of witches,_ " Her voice snaked around me, trying a different tactic. "" _I could tell you a secret about the pink-haired one who betrayed you. But then again, that wasn't much of a surprise, was it?"_

" _Dawn, send her back."_ I heard Topaz order. The demon ignored her, continuing on.

" _Her father was rather greedy, hm? Thier mother—too ambitious by far—heard of another witch bearing a gijinka's child, so she had to do the same. Now she's paying the price. A mixed-blood spellcaster is always dangerous. Add that with a genetically altered gijinka-blood?_ "

"Ursula's dad is a gijinka?" I said in spite of myself. A chuckle.

" _No, he only has the mulled down genes of a gijinka. Hardly even recognizable anymore. But mix that with the blood of a powerful witch?_ " another chuckle. " _Thus the result of three more beautiful abominations._ "

"So that is why—" I stopped. "No, I don't want to know."

" _Of course you do. How about the mightyena boy? I heard them talking to you about him. I remember the pups. They lived here, you know._ "

"They?"

" _About fifteen of them, cute as could be. Perfect little predators, flashing fangs and claws even before they could change forms—all but the biggest of the litter. The lone wolf. The smart wolf. When his Pack brothers flashed those fangs and claws one time too many, those who'd opposed the inclusion of the beasties got their way_."

"What happened?"

" _What happens to pups that bite their owner's hand? They were killed, of course. All but the clever ones who didn't play their wolfie games. They got to go away and be real boys and girls_." Her voice tickled my ear again. " _What else can I tell you…? Ah, the gijinka's. Remember the witch I mentioned earlier? Her brother and sister came in, left on the doorstep, abandoned as they snarled their fangs and spouted their elements. Little twister-head doesn't even know she has siblings, let alone those who were abandoned and genetically altered._ "

"Genetically altered…?"

" _Yes, dear. Most of those in Test Round Three are. Do you think they were born with those ears? Trust me, dear, they may have had their memory wiped, but no doubt their nightmares haunt them. Then know what it's like to_ _**hurt**_ _."_

I recalled Jade saying something similar, and I wanted to ask more questions, but something smacked me on the back of the head. I winced, then turned, seeing my ipod on the bed, then a white shirt. Zoey...

"I want you to leave." I said firmly.

She laughed.

" _Which is why you're lapping up my every word like sweet mead. How about I tell you about those past Round Three? There was two more, after all..._ "

Fighting my curiosity, I scrambled for my iPod, stuck in my ear-buds, and cranked up the volume.

o.0.o.0.o

 **Sorry for the long wait, I've been so bogged down though! XD**

 **Amy47101 signing off! ^.^**


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